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The Swiss Cheese Model is actually a real thing.
It was created by James T. Reason, and is used in risk management, aviation safety, engineering, healthcare, computer security, and more.
I think there’s a real place for it in K-12 education as well.
In fact, I’ve found it useful for nationwide and worldwide problems too–anything that seems to be too hard to solve, any issue that seems like it just can’t be fixed.
But let me give you an example that’s more dialed in. Let’s say students in your class are largely disengaged, distracted, unfocused, and not turning in high-quality work on time.
We can blame the kids, their families, the district’s expectations, or society at large for this.
In truth, there’s probably no one singular cause…and therefore no one singular solution.
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What if we stopped oversimplifying, and grappled with the complexity and intersectionality of problems? What if we used the Swiss cheese model?
If you have an upcoming project students need to turn in, and you’re worried that they’re not keeping up with the workload, you can provide mini deadlines: this Tuesday, topics are due; this Friday, first drafts are due.
Consider that a layer of Swiss cheese: you’ve done a thing, one very imperfect thing, one thing that clearly has holes in it and isn’t going to cover every single student…
but it IS one layer of defense against the problem.
Then look for another layer of Swiss cheese to lay on top: maybe you have students text their parents with their due date, so the home adults are kept in the loop and can stay on top of things.
Again, this is an imperfect barrier against the problem: some kids won’t do it, some families won’t check in with their kids. But you’ve added another layer, and it will help SOME kids, especially since this layer goes on top of that first one with the mini-deadlines.
Make your layers of Swiss cheese as impenetrable as possible: you might teach kids how to set reminders on their phone the day before things are due. You might have quick conferences with individual students to check in mid-way through the project, and again toward the end with the kids who are likely to need additional support. You might assign students to peer editors who check in with each other and keep each other up to date.
These are all additional layers to prevent kids from falling through. That’s the Swiss Cheese Model.
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Now you might be thinking, “But Angela, this is what we already do, we’re just not calling it that.
Here’s the difference, though: in my experience in education, we do most of these things begrudgingly because we know they’re not 100% effective. Because we know that an additional support or intervention isn’t going to completely fix the problem once and for all with every student, we get frustrated.
When we hear a new initiative or innovative idea, many of us have an immediate urge to think of all the situations in which that approach won’t work. We think, “Well that’s not going to help THIS kid” or “That’ll never work in MY classroom” or “Hah, good luck making that happen HERE.”
My encouragement to you is this: let go of the “all or nothing” thinking. Just because something won’t fix the problem for everyone in every scenario doesn’t mean it has no value.
Maybe the solution won’t stop X from happening, but it will stop Y. And then maybe another approach will stop Z, and those 2 things combined WILL lessen X a little bit, especially if you’re no longer as worried about Y and Z.
What I'm really suggesting to you here is to shift to the Swiss Cheese Model mindset.
Read or listen to the full article + podcast episode:
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Think in terms of multiple smaller solutions rather than finding that one big perfect thing that fixes it all forever.
Be willing to tackle hard problems with layers of imperfect solutions, rather than giving up doing anything altogether.
We need folks who are willing to fight for what’s right for this next generation, and that’s YOU.
Let’s solve the bigger problems in our schools and our world together, one small, imperfect layer of support at a time.
Angela
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Angela Watson
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